3DS price drop announced news

Only a couple of months after its release, the 3DS will be dropped in price to around 170 dollars, effective August 12th 2011. That is a huge drop for a system so young. And apparently Nintendo were forced to do so due to extremely low sales, not even selling a million units worldwide from April to June. That’s a shockingly low number, considering the old DS systems sold even more units in the same time period.

Sure, the launch line-up was extremely lacklustre, but the announcements made at E3 certainly forebode a promising future for the slick handheld. With the new price drop, Nintendo will lose some money, but will ultimately sell more units and in the end, the software sales are bound to make up for it. Who can resist titles like Star Fox 64 3D, Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7 and Kid Icarus: Uprising? Let’s hope the price drop will ultimately result in the system regaining its momentum.

These are tough times for Iwata and friends, but Nintendo will pull through in the end

So, you’ve bought a 3DS on launch day? That means you’ve paid a lot more than new buyers will pay (170 dollars, 160 GBP, 180 euros, 249 AUS dollars, 344 NZ dollars, 15.000 Yen) and that’s kind of a bummer. For those people with severe cases of buyer’s remorse, Nintendo have initiated the “Ambassador Program”. If you’ve bought a 3DS before the price drop on August 12th and have connected with the eShop before that day, you will be entitled to 20 3DS Virtual Console games. And that is a nice gesture.

The important question is: what games do we get? Nintendo have revealed they will offer 10 NES games and 10 GBA games for free. Some of the NES games we can expect are Balloon Fight, the first Legend of Zelda and Ice Climber. Some of the GBA games include Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgames and Mario vs. Donkey Kong. That’s a whole bunch of classics! Without a doubt, everyone will be happy in the end.